Top Ten Tuesday – series I’ve given up on or don’t plan to finish

TTT time! This week’s prompt has to do with series I won’t finish or I shelved for a long time. As usual, Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl hosts these weekly challenges (so, see her blog for more info).

These days, I am very picky about which series I’ll read because I don’t want to commit to two or three or more books in lieu of others on my TBR. As you’ll see, for most of the series on my list I enjoyed the first book but not enough to be drawn into that world to want to experience more. For some, of course, I didn’t even like book 1. There are also some series that I devoured as a teen or in my early 20s and loved but now that I am older and maybe more demanding on what makes a book great, I won’t want to spend my time with a simpler book despite the fact that I would probably enjoy it.

TTT of my bye-bye series

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This might be the most controversial on my list. I know people love this series. I did read the first book and listened to the second. But I am not sure I ever even finished that one. I watched the movies since then and somehow I never got into that series and now I just don’t feel like reading it.
2. Harper Connelly Graphic Novels by Charlaine Harris. Since I liked the Sookie Stackhouse stories, I was drawn to this graphic novel series but alas I didn’t get it and I didn’t even enjoy the illustrations all that much (admittedly I did accidentally read book 2 first but still). I can’t see myself picking up another book in this series or in the actual novel series.
3. Fifty Shades by E.L. James. I audiobooked the first book but never got around to book 2 and 3 and I am glad I didn’t.
4. The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch. I enjoyed book 1 but felt that the language was immature and simple. I tried reading the second one but gave up. Maybe it would be better in German???
5. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I don’t understand why there will be a second book. Nope!
6. Any James Bond book. I essentially love all Bond movies and was really looking forward to reading Ian Fleming. Well, Casino Royale portrayed Bond quite sexist and that was not enjoyable at all – it was painfully obvious because the book is written in first person view. So, I decided to stay ignorant and just watch the movies.
7. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. There is a prequel to this book and I am not interested. In general, I feel fairly negative toward prequels.
8. Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I actually flew through the first book and vowed I’d read this series. But thinking about it now, I have really no desire to do that.
9. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  I liked the first book for sure but again if I weigh the next books against other books on my TBR, the other books win.
10. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I am torn about this one. I enjoyed the first book but it was just so damn long – unnecessarily so in my opinion. So, although I am interested in the other books, I will probably not read them.

Series I enjoyed as a teen or in my early 20s and now have much more intriguing books on my TBR list:

1. Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris – I loved those books and made it to like book 10 maybe? I think there are 3 more books but at the moment I can’t justify reading those over some other books on my TBR.
2. Robert Langdon by Dan Brown. I read books 1-3 but won’t be continuing on. At this point, the series is too trivial and too sensationalized for my taste.
3. Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Colonel Race, Tommy and Tuppence, Superintendent Battle, Harley Quin, or any other Agathe Christie series. I loved, loved, loved everything Christie as a teen and read so many of her books but I don’t think I will purposely finish the series I had started because there are so many other books to be read.
4. Time Quintet by Madelaine L’Engle. I really enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time but I won’t be reading the sequels. Ain’t nobody got time for that.